Cases at St. Helena that the dockyard and magazines were to have been
protected by a gigantic fortress built on the opposite side of the
River Scheldt, and that Antwerp was to have been "a loaded pistol held
at the head of England."

In both lands warlike ardour rose to the highest pitch. French towns
and Departments freely offered gifts of gunboats and battleships. And
in England public men vied with one another in their eagerness to
equip and maintain volunteer regiments. Wordsworth, who had formerly
sung the praises of the French Revolution, thus voiced the national
defiance:

"No parleying now! In Britain is one breath;
We all are with you now from shore to shore;
Ye men of Kent, 'tis victory or death."

In one respect England enjoyed a notable advantage. Having declared
war before Napoleon's plans were matured, she held the command of the
seas, even against the naval resources of France, Holland, and North
Italy. The first months of the war witnessed the surrender of St.
Lucia and Tobago to our fleets; and before the close of the year
Berbice, Demerara, Essequibo, together with < nearly the whole of the
French St. Domingo force, had capitulated to the Union Jack. Our naval
supremacy in the Channel now told with full effect. Frigates were ever
on the watch in the Straits to chase any French vessels that left
port. But our chief efforts were to blockade the enemy's ships.
Despite constant ill-health and frequent gales, Nelson clung to
Toulon. Admiral Cornwallis cruised off Brest with a fleet generally
exceeding fifteen sail of the line and several smaller vessels: six
frigates and smaller craft protected the coast of Ireland; six
line-of-battle ships and twenty-three lesser vessels were kept in the
Downs under Lord Keith as a central reserve force, to which the news
of all events transpiring on the enemy's coast was speedily conveyed
by despatch boats; the newly invented semaphore telegraphs were also
systematically used between the Isle of Wight and Deal to convey news
along the coast and to London. Martello towers were erected along the
coast from Harwich to Pevensey Bay, at the points where a landing was
easy. Numerous inventors also came forward with plans for destroying
the French flotilla, but none was found to be serviceable except the
rockets of Colonel Congreve, which inflicted some damage at Boulogne
and elsewhere. Such were the dispositions of our chief naval forces:
they comprised 469 ships of w